Empire of Japan
ms:Empayar Jepun For the first time in so many centuries since the barbarian Mongols, the Land of the Rising Sun is once more threatened with darkness. All around Japan and Asia, the white devils are striking bargains to desecrate Amaterasu's sacred islands and plotting schemes to place stumbling blocks in the way of Her people. Japan's rivals are indeed thus many, but their time shall come - Russia is too engrossed with flea-infested and impoverished Europe; Britain and France are at war with their own subject-colonies; and American affluence has resulted in decadence and self-doubt. Perhaps Asia will be obliged to accept a new master capable of showing the world what Asia is truly capable of? Gameplay While Japanese units are somewhat tactically mediocre, there are several things to be noted: its infantry tend to suffer from less attrition, and its tanks are masters at amphibious warfare, despite their relative inferiority to Russian, American or German armour. Equally, Japanese armour suffers from poor firepower, but they have a high rate of fire to make up for it. They still are somewhat more fragile, and are better used as ambush forces. Thus, tactics-wise, Japan's best bet is in amphibious assaults and raiding. Its infantry may not be sturdy as even that of many minor nations, but their ability to strike anywhere without warning and without suffering attrition makes them highly lethal opponents. Japan's air force and naval units are also sufficiently powerful to give other players' pause early on. Japanese battleships are often slower but have better range, while Japanese aircraft early on are very fast - until the Electronics Era. Thus the Japanese player would be constrained to rush an enemy as fast as he or she can and defeat them before they can strike back - in the late game, Japanese units will be outclassed at all levels by all other units. Notes Although in real life Formosa was a vital part of the Empire of Japan prior to WW2, the game depicts Formosa as a capital of Nationalist China. This is because of the difficulties expected to arise if Japan were to start off occupying a capital of another nation. Japan has four leaders: *The first: Takahashi Korekiyo *After the Feb 26 Incident: Konoe Funimaro *Axis coup: Tojo Hideki *Under allied occupation: Kijūrō Shidehara *Under Soviet occupation: Miyamoto Kenji CtW objectives Conquer the following regions: *China *Southern Asia *Pacific ...as well as the following territories: *North Sakhalin *South Sakhalin *Kurils Notes *Initial difficulty: Hard *Number of capitals: 1 (Tokyo) *Number of supply centres 1 (Changchun-Xinjing) *Number of armies: 2 *Initial resources: Political Dissidents, Logistics Support The biggest problem for Japan is that the tables are extremely stacked against it. Not only does it have to take on the world's superpowers - Britain, France, Russia and the USA - it also has almost little to no chance of prosecuting the war against them efficiently, apart from its two armies. Thus, in order for Japan to win, it will have to think on what sort of strategy it will use in fighting its own battles. Fortunately for Japan, there are several perks. The first is that unlike Germany, Japan is already in possession of two armies - its own homeland forces, and another provided by its Chinese clients in the Cantonment of Changchun-Xinjing, so Japan has a substantially large army in comparison to the smaller Nationalist Chinese army, as well as a small outpost in the Marianas. Finally, China is in chaos with only its eastern seaboard occupied - the rest of China, most notably Lanzhou and Uyghurstan - are rendered lawless, and Japan only needs to find a way of getting into the centre and then begin its rampage. This is possible if you can capture Mongolia before the Soviets do, otherwise you will need to wait before you can declare war on China. There is no other way out, since most factions are reluctant to sell any fundamentally valuable areas to you. The many spy missions you can do should be able to sort things out for you. Timing your destruction of China should be done as carefully as possible - if you wait long enough, the French may give Indochina to the Chinese, and then you should be able to invade China to capture its ports and grab several Transport Requisition cards. If you have managed to capture other parts of China and succeeded in getting your way, China's ports should have provided you with sufficient materials for your next task - Southern Asia. The island of Borneo with its oil supplies should be your main target, allowing you to wipe out two Allied armies, and adding them to your own forces which can be put to better use in conquering India and the Pacific (you should then have at least 4 armies, unless you chose to purchase oil from the Axis which will then yield a fifth), finally ending the campaign. The only danger however would be treading on too many people's toes, and it does seem that there are quite a few. Territories covered Local: *Formosa *Nagasaki *Sapporo *Matsuyama *Tokyo *Kansai Overseas: *Marianas *Busan *Pyongyang *South Sakhalin *Kurils *Ryukyu *Changchun & Xinjing Unique units Infantry *Rifle infantry: Konoe Shidan Regiments - these are rifle infantry (4-6) *Recoilless: T4 (based off the Recoilless gun) *Special forces: (Japan doesn't receive them so early) Rikusentai => Giretsu Kuteitai (armed with SMGs) *Special: Suicide Soldiers - sword infantry, recruited from the Bunker if Kamikaze tactics was researched. Tanks *Light tanks: Ha-Go 3-6 *Tankette: T94 Te-Ke # 2 *Med tanks: Type 89 I-Go => 3 Type 97 Chi-Ha 4-5 => Type 1 Chi-He 6 *Heavy tank: T4 Chi-To 6 Artillery Assault gun: *T4 Ho-Ro 5-6 Tank destroyer: *T2 Ho-Ni 6 Cannons: *T38, 1-3 => T35 light artillery 4-6 *T94 37 => T1, 47mm [5-6 (AT guns) * Other vehicles *Hokoku armoured car Special units *Armed caravan^ *Armed merchant^ *Armed supply truck/Halftrack^ => TSS Engineer (is the I-Go, but with no turret, only a simple cupola and a flame nozzle - combines the supply truck and flame tank together but is somewhat costly) *Flamethrower infantry^ Aircraft *Fighters: Biplane^ => Nieuwport-Delage NiD 29 (shared with France) 2 => Ki-43 3-4 => "Hayate" 5 => Kikka 6 *Bombers: Ki-20 3 => Ki-21 4 => G5N Shinzan 5-6 *Special: Mitsubishi G4M 3 *Ohka (upgrade of carrier fighters, these become suicide bombers) Naval *Yamato-class battleship 3 (replaces the battleship) *I-boat (submarine carrier) *Kaiten-class (replaces submarines - cheaper, weaker, but with a strong suicide attack) Other *Coolie. Replaces a citizen, is cheaper, but slower and weaker, and also cannot be converted into Militia. Unique technologies Kamikaze Tactics: *Increases attrition to Level 4 *Available from the National Redoubt Complex wonder *Leads to Ohka suicide fighter bomber, Kaiten midget submarine and Suicide Soldiers National bonuses Bushido: *25% Higher Commerce Cap *Recieve Double Income from Taxation *Forts and Tower +2 Range *Receive Free Fishing Boat with each New Dock Unit bonuses *Tanks have added rate of fire *Tank research is initially relatively faster but over time becomes slower with each advance. *Tankettes are manufactured from the Munitions Factory, not the Heavy Engineering Depot. *Create Ships 33% Faster *Create AA Units, AA Buildings 25% cheaper and 33% faster *Can research Kamikaze doctrine *Barrage balloons are faster and have +1 armour. Category:Major powers